Friend still believes in "chavs"?

[waytoooldforthisshite]

Had a funny (well, slightly depressing) conversation today. my friend came round all flustered, telling me that she'd been "harassed by chavs" outside the shop. One was some teenager who asked for her number 🙄

Tried to explain that "chavs" aren't even real, it's a tabloid invented stereotype/myth from the early 2000s that was basically used to demonise working class people. But she just went on about it like she was quoting The Sun from 2004. I ended up showing her this article. She's 39.... and I expected her to know a bit better but what can ya do eh?

Just feels so outdated now. You don't really hear anyone say "chav" anymore (thankfully), and it's weird how those old class-based stereotypes still linger. I honestly felt like I'd timetravelled back to the Little Britain era 😂

Anyone else still know people who talk like that?

Hi Little OJ

Did you go to a state secondary school in the late 90s / early 2000s?

Your friend was harassed and you lectured her on how she referred to abusive males?
What a great friend

@waytoooldforthisshite "I'll trust the reputable sources. First link is from Cambridge University's website"

As if anyone at Cambridge University has a clue about living on a rough council estate! Bollocks do they. Well I do, and I can tell you straight that chavs are very much alive and kicking (literally). They aren't even working class, because they don't fucking work. They do have hobbies though, like chucking litter around - which they seem to take a surprising amount of pride in. They also thoroughly enjoy harrassing the old and vulnerable, but anyone will do. But their absolute favourite passtime is vandalising bus shelters and setting fire to the local playground. The word chav might have declined but the people that fit it haven't. Come down to my council estate OP and check it out. Your bleeding heart sympathies should go down a treat with the chavs outside the local Costcutter. Go on, I dare you.

No, they were not normal working class people and to suggest so insults working class people. What about scrotes? Does that float your boat. Although that suggests some criminality I suppose.

im northern so it to me it always sounds a southern phrase so not one I’d use.

Both hilarious and true.👏😂

Christ, the Shameless/Chav trope exists for a reason: I live opposite a couple who fit the stereotype. Punch ups in the garden, police round to see if I’d seen anything, comings and goings at all hours, groups of lads congregating, fire service out, multiple ambulances…they’re an utter delight

Chav doesn't define a class, it defines a group of behaviours. Load of little shits, useless wankers, absolute toe rags, thick gits. Same deal.
Anyone can break out of chavdom by stopping behaving like a chav.

No I cant come shopping with you sorry, Im busy

slams door

So some middle class people decided that other middle class people used a word that they disapproved of to describe a group of people that the middle class people believe are working class people. However the people being described as chavs are not working class but an underclass.

Is this like when a bunch of white people decide that a certain term is racist and get offended on behalf of other people who haven’t actually been asked or passed comment?

Unless they don't read The Guardian and then the classism is fine

Chavs can be well off too. Fake Louis Vuitton bags and Range Rover Evoques.

Chavs are still very much a thing where I am, although we called them "charvers" back in the early 00s.

Town just next to ours (has a really bad reputation that is well deserved) had a group of 20 chavs attack people with fireworks on bonfire night, one even threw a firework under a toddlers pram and she was left with facial burns. All chavs and thugs to boot.

WAGS are normally a bit chavvy

Not VB though as someone posted earlier, she has never been chavvy.

Chav is not a nice word. It's a word used by many people to stereotypically classify people according to a set of rules. It's often used to discriminate, in a negative way, against a group of people, usually white, working class. Most people avoid racialised terms of abuse but still think the white working class are fair game.
In order to avoid accusations of discriminatory and oppressive attitudes I much prefer to use the word wanker. It's ideal. You can apply it in many situations that could otherwise lead to you being accused of using discriminatory language. It's an equal opportunity term of abuse!
People some of you would describe as Chavs = wankers
Hooray Henry , upper middle class boorish types = wankers
Drunken rugby boys = wankers
Roadmen, black hoodies, fake Moncler coats, drill music = wankers

Not calling then chavs don’t stop them existing. It’s nothing to do with being on a low income, it’s about behaviour.

Good god! Were they picked up?

Ah, I remember Herberts and Casuals and I’ve seen enough Croydon face lifts to know what a Chav is

Footballers themselves can be chavvy, especially in their youth before they get media training.

Am starting to wonder if the OP has ever actually met a working class person

My 14 year old and their peers still use the word, and some of those peers identify as a Chav themselves. It may often be used as an insult but it's just a name for a certain type of people, same as there have always been names for types of people, like it or not, they have always existed.

Im not sure the media training really ever helps some of them....

As far as I know the person who threw the firework under the pram hasn't been, but I'm not sure if anyone else was arrested. They smashed the doors of the local One Stop as well, I feel really sorry for the staff that work there who have to put up with that, probably on a weekly basis.

She has seen them on benches while out shopping. Wash your mouth out.

It’s quite a simple formula: don’t behave like a prick/snob/wanker/bitch/chav/scripts etc etc etc if you don’t want to be called one.

it helps no one to pretend crappy people aren’t crappy